Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, April 20, 2008

For many years I have seen families in Plainview open their homes and hearts to athletes from all over the country. In the summer months, it has been in conjunction with the Little League baseball tournaments, and in the fall the Queens classic.

Though I hadn't thought about this in some time, while reading another local paper I saw where the community was seeking volunteer families for a minor league team.

There was no pay for the family but the perks were great: free season tickets to all home games and passes to all team events. With the possibility of getting to know on a personal level a future major leaguer, I'm sure people there will be happy to be volunteers.

I would have loved for my mom to have been part of a program like this, but there were times when I thought she didn't even want me at home, let alone some stranger living in her house for the summer. If the young man came home late, I wonder if she would treat him like she treated me, locking all the doors and windows and making him sleep in the car. That would make for a summer he would never forget, living with a crazy woman.

Not only would he have to hear, "Where are you going?" but also "Who's going to be there?" I can't imagine any coach having the words to explain to my mother that the young man living in her house can come and go as he pleases. I don't say this very often, but my mom has a little bit of old sailor in her and I'm sure it would come out at this meeting.

At the end of the summer, I'm sure that he would be a better person, and his parents and coaches might just think that my house was a great place to be. Know that he would receive no special privileges as a guest of the family and that he would be required to clean his own clothes and room every morning before leaving the house. His parents would get a disciplined son back and the coaches would get a great baseball player because he would spend every minute away from my house practicing just so he didn't have to come back.

(Michael Black is director of MR services at Tommy Lewis Industries and associate minister at Rehoboth Christian Worship Center. Contact him at michaelb@clplains.org)